ThoughtTrail

Creating a journaling experience that feels like a safe space

ThoughtTrail is a journaling app that supports emotional wellbeing among teens and young adults. Designed to be calm and intuitive, it helps users reflect, express emotions through multimedia entries, and build healthy writing habits. As the designer, I focused on lowering the barrier to journaling through simplicity, privacy, and visual comfort.

From functional prototype to emotional experience

ThoughtTrail was developed as a collaborative group project where I contributed to the conceptual foundation, user and competitor research, and initial visual design. Our team established the core features: multimedia journaling, mood tracking, prompts, reminders, and calendar views.

After the project concluded, I recognized an opportunity to strengthen the visual identity. While the original design was functional and included all necessary features, it lacked the emotional warmth and cohesive aesthetic essential for a wellness experience. I undertook a complete visual redesign, transforming the interface while preserving the format, features, and user flows we had established as a team.

Original Design: Functional layout with neutral beige palette. Featured all core functionality but lacked emotional resonance and visual cohesion appropriate for wellness journaling.

Redesigned Interface: Same features and structure, elevated through color psychology, stronger hierarchy, and a cohesive design system that creates a calming, supportive environment.

From research to redesign

Making journaling feel accessible and inviting

Teens often struggle to process emotions consistently. Existing journaling apps feel sterile or overly structured, lacking warmth and privacy. The challenge was designing a journaling experience that feels personal, comforting, and habit-forming for teens seeking emotional relief and self-reflection.

Understanding the competitive landscape

I analyzed leading journaling apps including Diarium, Penzu, and Grid Diary to identify opportunities and gaps in the market.

Competitor Insights

Diarium offers robust multimedia integration but lacks emotional personalization.

• Strengths: Multimedia entries, reminders, calendar/weather integration
• Limitations: Complex interface, less emotional tone

Penzu provides strong privacy features but feels formal and less engaging for younger audiences.

• Strengths: Strong security features, password protection
• Limitations: Lacks mood/emotion tracking, dated UI

Grid Diary emphasizes structure but can restrict free-form creativity.

• Strengths: Simple templates, habit prompts
• Limitations: Limited customization, text-only entries

User Research

I conducted interviews with college students to understand their journaling habits, challenges, and emotional needs. Key insights included:

• Users desired a private, non-judgmental space to express emotions without pressure
• Many struggled with consistency and needed gentle reminders or prompts
• Multimedia options (photos, videos, audio) were valued for self-expression and creative freedom
• A calming, visually appealing interface helped reduce the intimidation of starting a journal

These insights informed the design focus on emotional warmth, simplicity, and habit formation.

These personas shaped the app's flexibility in journaling styles and reminder-based habit support.

Transforming function into feeling

Building upon the solid feature foundation established in the original group project, my redesign focused on visual transformation. The core functionality, multimedia journaling, mood tracking, prompts, and privacy, remained unchanged, but every visual element was reconsidered through the lens of emotional wellness.

The central question guiding my redesign was: "How can the same features feel more supportive, calming, and inviting?" This led to strategic decisions around color psychology, typography, spacing, and interaction design that transformed the user experience while respecting the original concept.

Elevating wellness through intentional design

The redesign successfully transformed ThoughtTrail from a functional prototype into a polished wellness experience with a distinct visual identity.

• Executed a comprehensive visual redesign that elevated the app's emotional resonance while maintaining all original features
• Applied color psychology principles to create an emotionally supportive interface using a blue/lavender/coral palette
• Developed detailed personas and prototypes demonstrating user flows for journaling, mood tracking, and reminders
• Established a cohesive design system with intentional hierarchy, rounded elements, and strategic accent colors
• Created a scalable framework that could extend into future wellness features like guided reflections or social support spaces

Designing for emotional resonance

This project taught me the importance of designing for emotional resonance as much as usability. The redesign process reinforced how intentional visual choices, from color psychology to typography, can transform a functional product into a meaningful experience.

Working first in a collaborative environment and then independently on the redesign helped me develop both teamwork and autonomous design thinking skills. I learned to identify design opportunities, critique existing work constructively, and execute a cohesive visual system that truly serves users' emotional needs.